Callahan's Legacy

[HUSKER 37]

 

I'm almost positive Carriker made those comments after his first or second week with the Rams training camp..

 

Callahan as a quality offensive mind ?

Watson is an offensive genius ?

 

It's amazing how many times that "genius" title is thrown around when it comes to Nebraska Football.

 

Did Callahan even add anything to Walsh's playbook? I was under the impression he just kept the old WCO playbook and shuffled the pages once or twice.

 

Watson does seem to show a much better ability to adapt than we got used to with Cally/or Coz, but I doubt we'll see rules changes designed to stop us like we did with those crazy plays Dr. Tom "borrowed" from watching obscure Highschool recruiting tapes. (Fumbleroosky, Bounceroosky..Red Menace)

 

Taken from a Book I've just about finished reading..Tom was thinking Uwe Von Schamann, the OU Kicker from Germany? wasn't very tough (based on watching some film? or just seeing him warm up)...So he assigned one of our LB's on the Receiving team to just Level him after he keecked off...The rest of the game. he just dove to the ground and curled up in the fetal position after he kicked.

 

The next season, the NCAA put in a rule to help protect the kickers..I think it was you had to give them 5 yards or something.

 

 

With Cally's Offense, and even Watson's a little..We just can't seem to get those "pesky short yardage situation third down when it really counts" yards...At least not consistently

 

 

I also think Cally was a little more "loyal" to Coz out of guilt.

He pretty-much stockpiled the talent on the Offensive side of the ball, and only left the Defense as an afterthought..I also suspect Coz didn't really try all that hard after the threats to his family and neither expected to be here for the full term of their contracts.

 

 

Yards is Yards, but I still feel there's a little more quality to Rushing Yards..Mainly because it eats clock and wears out your opponent..And keeps your Defense on the sidelines jawing with the crowd.

 

"Air Coryell" could get you yards..just not that many Championships.

 

No, Carriker said that about Wyatt during bowl practices leading up to the Cotton Bowl.

 

Callahan is a quality offensive mind. He has a proven track record of that wherever he goes, college AND the NFL.

 

Actually, yes. Callahan's offense was severely more complex than almost any WCO offense you will find which is why so many people struggled to pick the thing up. His offense was like the WCO version of Al Saunders' offense.

 

You can list 3 names that will tell you how Callahan helped make minimally talented QBs look better than they truly were ..

 

Rich Gannon - NFL MVP

Zac Taylor - B12 OPOY

Joe Ganz - Golden Child

 

Watson's offense is less complex, relies very rarely on motion and is now ran out of the gun. People see us as moving to the spread, which is a complete fabrication. While we do run the zone read, our passing scheme is nothing more than a less complex WCO, just out of the gun.

 

For example, the Clemson game. Clemson was eating our lunch with their cover 2 scheme, but Watson made the proper halftime adjustments. One in particular example was earlier in the 4th quarter we were pinned deep in our own territory. Watson comes out strong left with Peterson isolated to the right. Ganz is in the gun with Castille to his right. Clemson's LBs of course shift to our overloaded left. Peterson runs a slant while Castille goes into the flats. The safety is of course playing off in the cover 2 so the CB is isolated. Does he stay with Peterson or go with Castille? The CB froze, Ganz rifled one into Peterson and the chains kept moving.

 

Watson is a genius and innovative simply because of how he uses his current offense. No one realizes it, but our offense is completely unique and something that no other college program runs. And Watson is to thank for that.

 

Cally didn't stockpile talent on offense. If anything, we always had average talent on offense. Taylor, Ganz, Peterson, Swift and heck, we could barely recruit TEs here. We see the talent we had on defense, it was never coached up.

Callies motions and the complex O really through some defenses off and I loved that about it.

 

Some Defenses?

Maybe Louisiana Tech's, Troy's, or Nicholls State's..

 

 

And that thing about Adam Carriker?..I couldn't find the direct link, but I do remember him complaining to Rams reporters about having to unlearn some things he was taught here.

 

(Probably not what you were talking about, though).

 

Reading your sig line about the Sooners reminds me of Cally's "quality offensive mind"..

 

But you'd still think if he had a better understanding of Ernie Zampese's playbook, he's be able to know what adjustments would need to be made if the plays weren't working, rather than just script the first 15 plays, rinse, repeat.

 

And your "Great Recruiter" couldn't get any Tight Ends?

Amazing! (And here I thought he just never used them).

 

I wish I could remember names more better, but I seem to remember him denying more than one RB switching to the other side of the field to help out when we had injuries to a few DB's or LB's even though there weren't enough carries to go around in our Offensive backfield..And the scholarships seemed to favor the offense pretty heavy the four years he was here.

 

 

So..How much do you expect us to run out of the Shotgun this season?